large tanks and carpet

[monotreme_man]

i am contemplating a largish 10ftx2ftx2ft tank but the room
it will be going in is carpeted. can this work? is there something
equivalent to piano leg carpet protectors i could use?

is there normal practice for this?

 

[Allmost]

why not peel the carpet where the tank is going and put tiles down instead ?

 

[worm5406]

Frankly due to the fact that carpet will compress, I would recommend AGAINST going over carpet.

Any issues that may happen (overflow/leak) would cause you more headache.

It would be best to take the one section and cut out, then, tile/finish the section to allow for a flat surface with easy cleanup.

 

[Pushwood]

Would have to agree with the other two guys comments. Laying tiles down will be your best bet, it will look good too if you choose a nice color of tile. It will accent the tank.

 

[Poriferan]

I agree also. I did a tank that was only 150 total gallons on carpet and it sagged forward a little after about a year entirely due to the carpet. I checked the floor joists to be certain.

 

[LightForce]

My buddy had a 180G sitting on a carpet and underlayment , after couple months you could see whole tank leaning forward. He had to take it apart after a year and remove carpet underneath and install 3/4" plywood on top of existing wooden floor. 3Y later tank is still ok.

 

[FuzzyZipperbaum]

You could try to put down 2 3/4 sheets of ply under the stand... However make sure that the edge of the ply does sit over the tacking strip under the carpet as that will not compress and thus your tank will lean forward.

 

[rpjaws74]

Yeup tile it...trust us you'll be happy you did it when you have a spill

 

[michael.lemke]

You could try to put down 2 3/4 sheets of ply under the stand... However make sure that the edge of the ply does sit over the tacking strip under the carpet as that will not compress and thus your tank will lean forward.

You could put three pieces of plywood. 1 3/4" then a 1/2" and then another 3/4". That way you'd have 3 pieces of wood.

 

[worm5406]

Point is... make it secure. You would not want some visitor to come over and lean on it only to have it start to sway. Water is heavy no matter how you put it.

Make your base secure and flat.

Good luck. What did you decide to do anyway?

 

[Phishguy]

I am literally replacing our carpet with tile right now... Carpeting gets destroyed when mishaps happen..

 

[monotreme_man]

not sure what i will do.
we don't own the house yet (we're supposed to close in 4 weeks).
i am currently unsure what is under the existing floor
(i've been told crawl space and been told concrete slab).

i would like to be able to "undo" whatever i do without too much hassle.
so the idea of taking up a 4ft wide strip of carpet, laying down an extra
layer of plywood and then tiling on top of that seems fine. that way, one can
undo teh tile by removing the plywood and tile and be back to the original
subfloor.

thanks for the advice, folks.

 

[psusocr]

My basement was all carpet, I cut out the carpet in the area for the fishroom and were the tank would sit and left the concrete slab, its wonderfull for spills or mishaps!! You cant tell the carept is even gone since i cut it fluch with the trim on my stand.. also if its not level just get some quick setting self leveling pour and level it off if you dont want to shim your stand..

 

[jt48]

Check out my build thread and pic in post 6. I replaced the carpet in the full room, placed 3/4 inch plywood over the hardwood floor and tiled it in area of tank. Tank is 8x3, tile is 10x4.
http://www.reefcentral.com/forums/showthread.php?t=2139108

 

[jt48]

Final product

 

[keithhays]

not sure what i will do.
we don't own the house yet (we're supposed to close in 4 weeks).
i am currently unsure what is under the existing floor
(i've been told crawl space and been told concrete slab).

i would like to be able to "undo" whatever i do without too much hassle.
so the idea of taking up a 4ft wide strip of carpet, laying down an extra
layer of plywood and then tiling on top of that seems fine. that way, one can
undo teh tile by removing the plywood and tile and be back to the original
subfloor.

thanks for the advice, folks.

You have a bigger issue than the tank, you are closing on a house where you don't know if it is a crawl space or concrete slab. Be that as it may, the problem you will have with carpet is the length of your tank. You can fix front to back motion, but settling in the center of the tank will cause it to crack regardless of whether it is concrete or crawlspace or both. Long tanks need to have no movement in this direction.

 

[bpcardona]

not sure what i will do.
we don't own the house yet (we're supposed to close in 4 weeks).
i am currently unsure what is under the existing floor
(i've been told crawl space and been told concrete slab).

Truly you need to figure this out before you doing anything else. It should be fairly simple to confirm.

 

[degibson84]

my tanks are sitting on the carpet, but we rolled or carpet right over the tile in the basement when we bought the house so i have not had any issues

 

[worm5406]

Well if you close in 4 weeks.. you need to do an inspection.

Go there with the inspector and see. He/she wont mind, and then you know they will make sure they check everything.